LONDON - Wimbledon organisers admitted an umpire made a mistake in the decisive tiebreak that ended with Venus Williams' shock exit from the tennis tournament today.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Williams refused to blame the confusion for her 7-6 7-6 second-round defeat to Croatian teenager Karolina Sprem.
"Regrettably the chair umpire made amistake which ended up with the score being called wrongly," championship referee Alan Mills said.
"Although both players seemed perplexed, neither queried the decision and play continued, resulting in Sprem winning the tiebreak and the match.
"As neither player queried the score with the chair umpire at the time, the result stands as the mistake should have been rectified immediately."
Mills said he would review the mix up tomorrow with chair umpire Ted Watts.
After making her earliest exit from Wimbledon in seven years, Williams said: "I'd like to think that one point doesn't make a difference. But obviously it was a wrong call, yes."
Prem said: "I was confused ... I was like 100 per cent in the match."
The problem arose when Sprem faulted on her first serve at 2-1 down in the second set tiebreak.
Rather than announce a second serve, Watts mistakenly gave the Croatian a point and called the score at 2-2, leaving both players looking perplexed.
After that Williams moved to a 6-3 lead and had three set points to get back into the match. Sprem saved all three and converted her first match point.
Williams said she had not contested the point because she often lost track of the score during matches.
"I just didn't want to lose my focus. And a lot of times, like I said, I just felt maybe that I had lost track.
"But it did seem -- I thought I remembered her only having one serve but then again, you know, it's a long time ago now ..."
